Mission & Justice

1/10/08

The Amazon is being deforested more than three times as fast as last year, Brazilian officials say, acknowledging a sharp reversal after three years of decline in the deforestation rate. The Environment Minister, Carlos Minc, said the coming nationwide elections were partly to blame, with mayors turning a blind eye to illegal logging in hopes of gaining votes. Environmentalists blame the global rise in food prices for encouraging soy farmers and ranchers to clear land for crops and grazing.

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18/4/08

Fires allegedly set by cattle ranchers and soybean farmers on Thursday have sent clouds of smoke across Argentina’s capital disrupting air and road travel and choking Buenos Aires residents for the past two days. Florencio Randazzo, Argentina’s interior minister, said about 70,000 hectares have burned over two days, an area the size of Brussels, Cape Town or Tehran. On Thursday, the interior minister said Argentina was facing “a disaster caused by the hand of man”. Officials have accused farmers of setting the blazes as a cheap way of clearing scrub from cattle-grazing land. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Argentina’s president, urged the authorities to prosecute offenders. “These fires are the result of two aspects of human nature: irresponsibility and irrationality,” she said

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